Wikipedia search results different for api (opensearch) vs normal web interface? [closed]

Question

For the text query "major+histocompatibility+complex+class+II+antigens" I get different results using the web and api interfaces. Is there a way to get the same results as the web interface using the api?

Query with web interface:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=opensearch&search=major+histocompatibility+complex+class+II+antigens

Query with api:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=opensearch&search=major+histocompatibility+complex+class+II+antigens

I looked at the api reference (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php) and question on SO (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1397938/is-there-any-api-in-java-to-access-wikipedia-data) but none of them dealt with this issue. Is the opensearch api using a different search engine?

Answer 1

action=opensearch does not do what you think. It searches for page titles beginning with the entered prefix, for use in completion of input in a search box or the like. The API equivalent of Special:Search is list=search.